Okay, maybe there’s a reason the Tampa Bay Rays had the best record in the American League this year.

Maybe they know what they are doing. Even though pulling a starting pitcher after just sixty-six pitches who was throwing one of the most dominating post-season starts imaginable is foolish.

But this time it worked. Maybe they knew what they were doing. Or maybe they just got really lucky. Because it didn’t work in Game 6 when they did the same thing.

It worked forty out of sixty times this season.

And it worked enough to get the Rays into their second World Series in team history.

Sometimes you are good. Sometimes you are lucky. Either way, Tampa Bay hung on and sent Houston home. In doing so they did every baseball fan in America outside of Houston a huge favor by not letting the Astros have a shot at another ring.

After all, 2020 has been a miserable enough year. Its baseball season did not need to end with a Houston Astros celebration. That would have been unbearable.

But Tampa Bay’s manager did everything he could to make it happen.

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TODAY’S GAME: